Flowers, Hurricanes and Knees

When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Flowers!!

A couple of great friends, knowing the battles I've been having, surprised me one day with an army helmet adorned with flowers! Posing for pictures with them, also in matching helmets, cheered me up to no end! But I think the helmet looks far more distinguished on Caesar, my Roman bust, lol :)

This has been quite the few weeks for anyone living along the Atlantic Ocean feeling the wrath of a number of terrible hurricanes! My heart goes out to all who have suffered any loss of life and home. We all need to band together to help in any way we can. I'm still trying to figure out a way I can help, but I may have to do it with flowers, so stay tuned!

My husband and his family have property in the Florida Keys and luckily they suffered only tree devastation and about two feet of seaweed along with the ocean floor flooding their garage. We are truly blessed!

And thus, after 8 knee operations, a life filled with sports and whole lotta fun, it became necessary for me to say adiós to my left knee (the right one in this picture :)

I have no idea what the occasion was for this picture, and why I'm in it with my sister (the one holding the rose) and all her friends, but little did I know this was the beginning of a loooong knee road! One chronically filled with crutches!

So after the surgery as I was forced to stay still, which is very hard for me! I contemplated life, read a couple of books, The Captain's Daughter and Ordinary Grace, and thought about flowers growing in my yard and at the farm, aster b., where I am part of a farm share.

 My husband kindly put the bed on the first floor and surprise gifts came along my way! Thanks to all my friends and secret gifters. I even found this fabulous rock at my doorstep from Marblehead Rocks Kindness! This is the coolest movement spreading cheer to all!

When you find a rock, you're supposed to take a picture where you found it and share the happiness on facebook! Here's mine and it happened to be a very busy day on the water off my porch!

So as I got better, and with the summer days waning, I knew I had to harvest what flowers were left and make something pretty! Little did I know that we would be dealing with yet ANOTHER hurricane off my New England home when making the arrangement! Hurricane José decided to say a little Olé that left us all scrambling to get our boats in safe places!

After getting my last farm share and foraging in my own garden, I took inventory of what I had and just went for it!

In my crooked (sorry!) picture, you can see that I placed the droopiest eucalyptus in the water to add some texture and to hide the stems.

With the remaining stem of eucalyptus, I snipped it into thirds and started the arrangement, making a background with the green.

I know this looks a little wonky at this point, but I added in some grasses, yarrow and pink (!) Queen Anne's Lace.

I added in some statice , the purple flowers, and and globe amarinth, the red balls.

Finally, I added in zinnias, marigolds and lisianthus with one sprig of delphinium. Voila! A fall arrangement that looks ready for a Rueben painting, but cheery nonetheless!

And FINALLY José  left us with beauty of his own in this spectacular sunset!!

Cheers!